Stars face stiff test in road matchup with 'elite' Lightning

The Dallas Stars will face a stiff test tonight when they take on the league-leading Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena in game four of their five-game road trip.
The Lightning, who have won three straight games and have points in seven straight, are tops in the NHL with 88 points, 13 more than the next closest team.
"Huge. On the road and in their barn," said Stars captain Jamie Benn. "There's no question about it, these guys are an elite team, and they have some elite talent over there. We really have to be at the top of our game and come prepared."

This is the second meeting of the season between the Stars and Lightning. Tampa Bay won 2-0 in Dallas on Jan. 15. The Stars outshot the Lightning 35-21 and had a 67-40 advantage in shot attempts, but they didn't generate a lot of high-danger chances in the game.
"I liked how we managed our game," said Stars coach Jim Montgomery. "We didn't give them much, and we made them earn it, and they are so good they will earn opportunities. I think we've got a do a better job of making them defend in their own end. I don't think we did a great job of that last time."
The Stars will make only one change in the lineup they used in Tuesday's 3-0 win at Florida.
Gurianov will come in at forward, and Valeri Nichushkin will sit as a healthy scratch. Gurianov will take Nichushkin's spot on the fourth line with Mattias Janmark and Radek Faksa. The other three lines will remain the same with Tyler Seguin centering Roope Hintz and Alexander Radulov, Benn playing on a line with Jason Dickinson and Blake Comeau, and Jason Spezza at center with Andrew Cogliano and Brett Ritchie.

The defense pairs will remain the same: Esa Lindell-John Klingberg; Miro Heiskanen-Roman Polak; Jamie Oleksiak-Taylor Fedun. Connor Carrick and Julius Honka will sit as scratches.
Anton Khudobin, who tossed a 30-save shutout in Tuesday's win over Florida, will make his fourth straight start.
Ben Bishop remains day to day with an upper-body injury. Bishop, who has been practicing, said he suffered the injury late in the Feb. 4 game against Arizona at American Airlines Center.
"Just getting better here, trying to get back as soon as possible," Bishop said. "It's kind of lingering so we are just trying to work through it."
Bishop said it wasn't so much about getting back to 100 percent getting to a certain comfort level.
"It's about getting back to where you are comfortable playing, and you feel you can do your job to the best of your ability comfortably," he said. "That's kind of where we are right now. It's been longer than I hoped, but at the same time can't really do much about it. Get better as fast as you can."
The Stars (29-22-5) come into tonight's game with six wins in their last eight games (6-1-1). They are in third place in the Central Division and lead fourth-place St. Louis by two points. They are six points up on the ninth-place spot in the Western Conference.

Opposition watch: Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning (42-11-4) ran their point streak to seven games (5-0-2) with a 6-3 win over Calgary at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.
Nikita Kucherov had one goal and three assists and Brayden Point chipped in one goal and two assists for Tampa Bay, which has scored 16 goals over their last three games, all wins.
Forward Ondrej Palat, who has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, is a possibility to play tonight. Andrei Vasilevskiy is the expected starter in goal.

Fast facts

Tonight's game

Who: Dallas Stars at Tampa Bay Lightning
Where: Amalie Arena
When: 6:30 p.m.
TV:Fox Sports Southwest
Radio:The Ticket 1310 AM/96.7 FM

Stars projected lineup

Roope Hintz - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn - Jason Dickinson - Blake Comeau
Andrew Cogliano - Jason Spezza - Brett Ritchie
Mattias Janmark - Radek Faksa - Denis Gurianov
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Miro Heiskanen - Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak - Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Landon Bow
Scratched:Connor Carrick, Julius Honka, Valeri Nichushkin
Injured: Ben Bishop (upper body), Tyler Pitlick (wrist surgery), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee surgery), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)

Lightning projected lineup

Tyler Johnson - Steven Stamkos - J.T. Miller
Yanni Gourde - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Adam Erne
Danick Martel - Cedric Paquette - Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman - Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh - Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn - Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Jan Rutta
Injured: Ondrej Palat (upper body), Erik Cernak (lower body), Mathieu Joseph (undisclosed)
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.